Hi ladies! Story time. I live in central Arkansas. Last year we had a 14 yr old girl who ran away from home in our community. (A very long and interesting story but…anyway) Here’s what I want people to know:
Community involvement lesson #1 – the community became aware that she was missing but the local police were not doing much and didn’t consider her missing because it was clear she had left on her own. The mama bears in our community called BS. They organized, hung banners, created social media feeds, contacted organizations, contacted media outlets, hit the streets with flyers, and pressured the police. Through community pressure the police finally stepped up and started really looking for her and participating in finding her.
Community involvement lesson #2 – because the mama bears were able to get her photo spread country wide, and the crime junkies of the world are awesome…a librarian hundreds of miles away in another state was able to recognize her from the missing child posts and called police. WE GOT HER BACK SAFE AND SOUND!!! She had been gone for weeks, had hopped a train, and was so far away. But people paid attention, cared, and got involved!
Community involvement lesson #3 – because of the community’s vocal unwillingness to accept that a child that runs away shouldn’t be looked for, the local police have been MUCH more active in the search for missing “runaway” teens. And the even better news is that it has spread through the entire central Arkansas area. I now see all of our regional police stations posting about and investigating runaway cases, and treating these kids as missing. (They don’t want to face the wrath of the mama bears lol.)
Be weird, be rude…save lives!